Friday, March 29, 2013

by Ana Duncan Pardo, Communications CoordinatorAfter five and a half years of service, today is my last day at Toxic Free NC.

During my time here, we built an active and vibrant farm worker organizing program, I led the organization into documentary work and helped broadcast our messages on everything from pest control in child care centers to federal toxics reform.

Today is bittersweet. I’m excited about what’s next for me personally as an aspiring urban farmer, but I’m also thrilled about what’s on the horizon for Toxic Free NC.

Our plans to make fresh, local, organic food available to everyone are the product of years of listening, advocacy and careful thought. This is truly a moment in which I expect our organization’s greatest strengths to shine.

As I’m putting seedlings in the soil this spring, my colleagues at Toxic Free NC will be rolling out across the state to help community gardeners, farmers and eaters of all stripes learn the skills necessary to achieve just and sustainable food systems in their communities. Skills like engaging decision-makers in local food policy change and organic garden pest control.

My enthusiasm about this work is only matched by my commitment as a supporter. I am a monthly donor to Toxic Free NC because I believe that our work to establish local, healthy and economically viable foodsheds – in short, democratizing food – could hardly be more important than it is at this moment.

I like to think of it in food system terms. You could be a “farmers’ market shopper” and make a one-time donation, or you could “join the CSA” with a monthly gift. Either way, you’ll be supporting one of the best organizations in the state. And you'll be helping them continue to do some of the most exciting work in NC around food systems change.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The NC Department of Agriculture has revived a bill from 2005 that directly
threatens organic agriculture and small farmers in North Carolina. H 379,“Clarify Board of Ag Authority/Plants,” uses an innocuous title to launch an
offensive on anyone who grows a crop in North Carolina without a corporate
patent on it. Rep. Langdon (R-Johnston), chair of the Agriculture Committee,
has filed the bill in the NC House of Representatives.

Here we go again. A nearly identical bill
called “Plant Regulation” was filed on behalf of the NC Department of
Agriculture in 2005. Like its undead counterpart, H379 would prevent any
government entities – local governments in particular – from enacting any
ordinance or legislation to restrict the sale or cultivation of any plant in
NC, reserving that authority solely for the NC Board of Agriculture. Here’s a
good question… Why?

Monsanto and other companies have
aggressively defended their patents, to the point of suing farmers for patent infringement when they save and re-plant seeds that have been contaminated with
genetic material from neighboring crops.

Genetic drift can make a farmer’s
crop unsaleable in places like the European Union, which has tougher
restrictions on GMO crops. Genetic drift can also harm a farmer’s organic certification.

The bill also has fallout for local
governments, who would be prevented from restricting the sale or cultivation of
invasive species that may be affecting them locally. It could even prevent
local governments from enacting notification policies to protect organic
farmers from genetic drift, according to the Center for Rural Affairs.

When this legislation was first introduced in
2005, the NC Senate inserted language to protect small farmers and organic
neighbors from the potential damage. The result? The bill was killed, and Dr.
Frankenstein returned defeated to his lab… apparently to wait for a more
favorable environment in which to raise this bill from the dead.

The effect of H 379 will be to further
concentrate corporate control over food and farming. It’s clear why a bill like
this might be good for the likes of Monsanto, but how is it really good for
farmers?

Thursday, March 21, 2013

If you live in a rural area, you may not have a wonderful grocery store full of organic items close by. Some larger grocery chains are incorporating more organics into their lines, in response to customer demand.

How can you get your local grocery store to do the same? Ask them!

One of the members of Toxic Free NC's Community Leadership Council, Connie Schultz, had a great idea. Why not create a sample letter that makes it easy for consumers to ask their local stores to do better?

Here's a sample letter that you can use. Just copy & paste the text and print it on your own stationery. Be sure to add your own name and address, and personalize it if there are other things you want to say.

If you hear back from your local grocer, let us know what they say!

Date, 2013

Your name and address

Dear Store Manager,

I have been a customer at <your store> for many years. I appreciate all that you do to make shopping at <your store> a pleasant and convenient experience.

You may know that organic foods are a fast-growing part of the marketplace. In fact, I and many of my friends drive all the way to <Raleigh or Chapel Hill, or Asheville...> to shop at the <large organic market>! That's inconvenient for me, and lost business for you.

Would <your store> consider bringing more organic products in to the store so that I don't have to drive to another city to get them? In particular, I'd like to see:

Organic frozen vegetables like broccoli and spinach - they are so convenient!

Organic dairy products, especially milk and yogurt

<.... list the items you want to see!>

Organic food is important because when you eat it, you take fewer toxic chemicals into your body. One of the other sources of toxic chemicals is actually the food packaging. Many retailers are getting Bisphenol-A (also known as BPA) out of their canned food and other packaging. I hope that <your store> will do the same.

Thank you for considering my request. If you have any questions, you may reach me at <provide your phone, email or other method of contact>.

She'll be here to talk about things you can do to protect your family from toxic chemicals and what we can do to update our broken federal toxics laws. As someone who specializes in toxic chemicals reform, she’s got lots of knowledge to share with us!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

As soon as spring starts to poke its nose out, I start daydreaming about the delicious things I'll be eating from my garden and from the farmer's market this summer. Chief among my food fantasies: Blueberries.

What's not to love about a blueberry? They're small, cute, delicious, packed with vitamins and antioxidants, and they grow like crazy here in North Carolina. Here's something I don't love: the side-dressing of pesticides that come with conventionally-grown berries.

I got a jarring reminder of why I buy organic berries at yesterday's meeting of the NC Pesticide Board.

The Board was hearing the case of a farmer from Bladen county who had violated pesticide rules by sending workers in to harvest blueberries too soon after a pesticide application. The grower had applied a pesticide formula that included malathion - a notorious nerve poison - and had the berries harvested before the required 24-hour pre-harvest interval was up. One worker was hospitalized with suspected pesticide illness (though the exact cause could not be confirmed). The Ag Department's inspector came out several days later and collected samples. Those samples showed malathion residue. The grower was fined $800.

Just a moment. About those berries... Board member Benson Kirkman asked if the blueberries could have been on a farm stand for sale the same day.

Yes.

Uncomfortable silence.

The berries were in fact harvested too early. But only by a few hours. Just 24 hours after an application of pesticides that could still be detected several days later - pesticides that may even have made workers sick - EPA rules allow those same berries to be harvested and put up for sale.

That's why blueberries landed on the "Dirty Dozen" pesticide list in 2010, and it's also a very good reason to buy organic blueberries this summer.